A journey to find purpose and to create a meaningful life

Remembering Why You are Here

One thing that stuck me from my first week of orientation was: “don’t forget why you came here.” I am already in my second week of class, and I already feel myself slipping into a constant stream of thinking about the work – the problem sets, the readings, the presentations, class discussions, and finding a summer internship.

It’s easy to feel overwhelmed in this environment. To feel like you aren’t good enough. To feel like you don’t belong. That you should have studied more. That you should have spent more time on something. That you were just wrong about something, or maybe even called out for it.

But what I will remember is that it is a choice to be here. An amazing choice to be here at Harvard. I came to Harvard to learn about a myriad of things – political theory, writing and speaking skills, analytical frameworks, history, literature, sociology and others. I dreamed of interesting conversations with people – ones that challenges what I believed in, ones that gave me a stronger framework for thinking about complex issues, and ones that touched my heart and mind.

And I came to Harvard to make friends with others who had a heart for making the world a better place. People who like me challenge themselves to do the best they can for the most people around them – to systematically improve the lives of others.

There will be days where I get butterflies in my stomach with nerves. Like days where the former editor of TIME reads out loud something I wrote in class.

There will be nights where I don’t realize how late it is when I’d doing readings, because I want to be the best I can be for my professors and my fellow students. And I am genuinely interested in the topics.

And each day of these very short two years, I will cherish, because sadly it will be over before I know it.